Aussie championPedder joins WRC 2

Australian rally champion Scott Pedder will contest a minimum five rounds of the WRC 2 support category in this year’s FIA World Rally Championship.

Melbourne-based Pedder will drive a Ford Fiesta R5 in Portugal, Italy, Poland, Finland and Australia. He hopes to add Spain and Great Britain to his programme at the end of the season.

Pedder will be partnered by experienced co-driver Dale Moscatt, who co-drove Evgeny Novikov in the WRC in 2008 and 2009 and worked with former Subaru factory driver Chris Atkinson in China in 2013 and 2014.

Pedder and Moscatt won the Australian title last year in a Renault Sport Clio (pictured below) and the gravel specialist, a former Mitsubishi Ralliart factory driver in his home country, believes that win will give him a perfect platform to step up to WRC 2.

“Winning the Australian Rally Championship last year was a dream come true. It’s something I’d worked towards my entire rallying career, so to be able to tick that box was incredibly special,” he said.

“Announcing our programme in the WRC2 category of the World Rally Championship is the culmination of a lot of hard work behind the scenes by a lot of different people and feels just as special.

“They are five amazing events. They will be extremely demanding but I believe between Dale’s prior experience competing in the WRC and the team we have behind us we are in with a shot of securing some strong results,” added Pedder.

The Fiesta R5 will be run by experienced Spanish team RMC, which won the 2013 Production Cup in the WRC with Nicolás Fuchs.